On Wednesday, exactly five months before the November 8 general election, the House and Senate released their final agreement on language for the VOTES Act. Yesterday, the Senate voted 37 to 3 in support of the final version of the bill, and the House is expected to vote soon.

The negotiations around the VOTES Act have been going on for months. The Senate passed a bill back in October, and then the House passed one back in January. There has always been strong support from both chambers this session for making the widely popular vote-by-mail and expanded early voting reforms from 2020 permanent, but House leaders have remained fiercely opposed to Same Day Registration or even a narrower Election Day Registration despite ongoing Senate support. Rep. Mike Moran (D-Brighton), one of the most vociferous opponents of Same Day Registration in the House debate, was one of the House appointees to the Conference Committee negotiating the bill.

The opposition to Same Day Registration / Election Day Registration is revealing. Reforms like vote-by-mail and expanded early voting can give incumbents a clearer picture of who is voting and who has already voted. SDR/EDR means that new people with whom they may not have spoken could show up at the polls. That uncertainty terrifies many representatives, and rather than stepping up their work at engaging all residents of their districts, they would rather shut such prospective voters out of the process entirely.

The final version of the VOTES Act, to be clear, contains a number of wins, some big and some modest. Special credit to the Democracy Behind Bars coalition for elevating the issue of jail-based voting during the debate and the negotiations around the bill.

Here are the key provisions of the Conference bill:

Voter Registration 

• Reducing the voter registration deadline from 20 days before the election to 10 days. Unfortunately, the Conference bill left out Same Day Registration or Election Day Registration, which, as noted, had been a major point of contention in negotiations. The Senate has now voted to pass Same Day Registration three times, only to see it fail each time due to House intransigence. Same Day Registration is one of the simplest and most effective ways to increase turnout, and it is especially important for working-class voters, BIPOC voters, young voters, and renters, and it continues to be appalling that our Democratic supermajority in the House is too afraid of new people participating in the democratic process to embrace this reform. 

• Requiring the Secretary of State to make the online registration portal accessible in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and other languages deemed necessary or required by law 

• Reasserting that the Automatic Voter Registration law passed in 2018 is a back-end rather than front-end opt-out system. Secretary Bill Galvin has been refusing to implement the bill as passed, creating instead what is called a “front-end opt-out system” in which eligible registrants are given the opportunity to opt out during the initial transaction as opposed to afterwards. For more on this issue, read this. 

• Requiring the Secretary Galvin to enroll Massachusetts in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which helps states keep more accurate voting rolls, no later than July 1, 2022. This too was required in the 2018 AVR bill, and Galvin has refused to adhere to the law.

Vote By Mail 

• Permanent early voting by mail for all elections (unless municipalities vote to opt out in a public vote of the local legislative body for local elections)
  • Application deadline of the fifth business day before the election (the Tuesday before the election for all regularly scheduled Tuesday elections, and the Monday before the election when the primary falls on the week of Labor Day)
  • Special accommodations for those with disabilities seeking to vote by mail.
  • Creation of an online portal for VBM requests, as well as publication of the application on the Secretary website and the websites of each city and town 
  • Mailing of VBM applications no later than 45 days before the election to all voters registered no later than 60 days before the election 
  • VBM applications and ballots postage-paid, pre-addressed, and available in all languages as required by law. 
  • Mailing of applications with the voter registration acknowledgement letters sent out after registering to vote or updating registration 
  • Deadline of 5 pm on the third day after the election for receipt of VBM ballots mailed on or before Election Day  

Unfortunately, there are no requirements around the number or accessibility of drop boxes for cities and towns to make available for return of VBM ballots. 

Early Voting 

• Two weeks for biennial state elections (Saturday two weeks before GOTV Saturday through the Friday before the election) 
• One week for primary elections (Saturday before GOTV Saturday through the Friday before the election) 
• Posting of early voting sites at least two weeks prior 
• Local option for early voting in municipal elections (Majority of registrars must request, and then local legislative body must approve. The early voting period must exist within 17 days before the election and 2 business days prior. For Tuesday elections, this would mean between the Saturday two weeks before GOTV Saturday and the Friday before the election.) 
• See below for early voting requirements by city/town population

Staffing the Polls 

• Enabling cities and towns to appoint poll workers from outside the city/town if there is insufficient staffing 
• Granting the power to determine the staffing of police officers of the polls to the local legislative bodies, rather than the police departments

Jail-Based Voting Reforms

• Ensures that individuals who are incarcerated who are currently eligible to vote are provided with voting information and materials to exercise their right to vote
• Requires correctional facilities to display and distribute information about voting rights and procedures, as prepared by the Secretary of the Commonwealth
• Requires facilities to assist individuals who are incarcerated in registering, applying for, and returning mail ballots
• Ensures that individuals who are incarcerated are properly notified of their right to vote upon release and given the opportunity to fill out a voter registration form
• Creates systems for data collection on jail-based voting, as well as the ability of incarcerated individuals to submit complaints

Unfortunately, the JBV language only applies to state/federal elections (and does not include municipal elections), but it is still a big win.